Sponsored by: Approved: 03/10/2013
A RESOLUTION OF THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY OF OREGON
WHEREAS, the United States was founded on the principles of individual liberty, personal privacy and equality, and these principles are meant to ensure that each individual is free to make intimate decisions free from government interference and discrimination, and
WHEREAS, one of the most intimate decisions a woman ever faces is the decision to bear and raise a child, to bear a child and choose adoption, or to end a pregnancy, and such a significant medical decision must be left up to a woman, her family and her faith, with the counsel of her doctor or health care provider, and
WHEREAS, according to the World Health Organization, 47,000 women die each year worldwide due to complications from unsafe abortions (approximately 13 percent of all maternal deaths) are due to unsafe abortions, and
WHEREAS, prior to the Roe v. Wade decision, an estimated 1.2 million women per year in the United States were forced to resort to illegal abortions despite the known hazards that included unsanitary conditions, incompetent treatment, infection, hemorrhage, disfigurement and death, and
WHEREAS, prior to 1973, an estimated 5,000 women died each year in the United States as a result of having illegal abortions, and
WHEREAS, it is vital to women’s health and well-being that abortion remain a safe and legal medical procedure for a woman to consider, if she needs it and when she needs it.
NOW, THEREFORE, THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY OF OREGON RESOLVES THAT: Section 1. We assert that a woman’s personal medical decision-making about pregnancy is a fundamental
right; and,
Section 2. Decisions about whether to bear and parent a child, to bear a child and choose adoption, or to end a pregnancy must be left to a woman, her family and her faith, in consultation with her doctor or health care provider; and,
Section 3. Abortion should remain a safe and legal medical procedure without intrusive governmental interference; and,
Section 4. Every woman deserves professional, nonjudgmental and fully confidential health care, regardless of where she lives, as well as access to all methods of birth control approved by the United States Food and Drug Administration.
Adopted this 10th day of March, 2013 by the Democratic Party of Oregon.
This resolution ties to the 1st plank of the Oregon Democratic Party platform: “Our Responsibilities and Rights as Individuals and Family Members”
